


The 'Right' Decision

by Wix



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Infinity Stones, Messing with the timelines, Mistakes, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Time Stone, Time Travel, not team Cap friendly, references to other characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 11:53:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix/pseuds/Wix
Summary: The Avengers decide to use the Time Stone to alter the timeline in order to have more time to prepare for Thanos. Steve, in all his wisdom, comes to realize that sometimes things can get worse.So much worse.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 126
Kudos: 1988





	The 'Right' Decision

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Just a short that I typed up today. Hope you all enjoy it.

When the plan to utilize the Infinity Stones themselves comes around, it seems like something inevitable that was finally coming around full circle. Thanos’s plans to use the stones to destroy the universe by slicing it right down the middle and erasing half of it for reasons that made little to no sense whatsoever to Steve had pushed them into a kind of desperate place in their own plan making. 

There were no doubts after all that they weren’t ready, not by a long shot, even if it were even possible to be able to be ready for Thanos’s forces. The brief taste that they’d gotten back in New York all those years ago had seemed like such a large-scale incursion and it was only now that they were coming to the realization that what Loki had led through the door to Earth hadn’t even been a drop in a bucket when it came to Thanos’s complete attack force. In the end, what else were they supposed to do other than make the same choice that Thanos was making and use these objects to end the fight without having to fight it at all. 

Unsurprisingly, Tony had been against the plan from its inception. Steve doesn’t fully know why; he figures that Tony would be all about poking at the stones again and actually getting a chance to do it right this time around. Instead, Tony manages to convince a good chunk of what’s left of the world’s Avengers forces, the new additions to the team, into agreeing with him over Steve. It’s like the Civil War building in their halls all over again, and the only thing that Steve feels he can be grateful for is that this time the fighting stays behind closed doors and only resulted in raised voices and a couple of Wanda outbursts at the brunet instead of the absolute destruction that was the first Civil War. 

_ “I’m surprised at you. I would think that your stance at poking at the mind stone would make it to where you wouldn’t be able to wait to poke at the time stone.” Sam says to Tony and Tony gives him a look, his eyes hard and flinty like they’d been towards them ever since Steve and his team had walked through the doors and back into his life.  _

_ “We have no way of understanding the true implications of what you’re proposing.” Tony snaps. “Do you have any idea the sheer scope of what could go wrong? This is literal time travel we’re talking about.”  _

_ “Everything is already wrong Stark.” Clint growls at him and Tony shakes his head.  _

_ “Things are what they are, but don’t think for a second that they can’t get worse Barton.” Tony retorts, matching the rage in the archer’s voice. It’s not helping anything, but Steve’s long since come to realize that trying to point out that simple truth to Tony will result in nothing more than a new headache or two for his troubles. “Has nobody here heard of chaos theory?” Tony asks. “To even change one thing in the past would be to change the equation in ways that could not be predicted. There’d be no way to accurately chart it’s impact on the timeline.”  _

_ “At least it’s a plan.” Sam points out and Tony shakes his head.  _

_ “It’s not a plan, it’s insanity.” Tony says. “And if **I’m** saying that something is insane then that should make people stop and listen.”  _

_ “Always about getting people to listen to you Stark, isn’t it?” Wanda asks and Tony runs his hands through his hair with a frustrated growl.  _

_ “So what are you saying Tony?” Nat asks, leaning forward in her chair. “You’re saying that an imaginary thought process is more important than a real-life threat?”  _

_ “There are reasons that people consider this shit Romanov.” Tony replies. “Call it a thought process if you will, but right now it’s possible to achieve and that’s terrifying.”  _

_ “Come on Stark. You’re telling me that you wouldn’t go back and kill Hitler before he became ‘Hitler’, preventing the war and saving all those people?” Lang pokes at him and Tony gives him a look.  _

_ “I’m saying that things have happened, far too many things that have created threads that have branched out from them. Strange said that time is bendable, sure, but that just means that it snaps back. Who is to even say that going back a few years will stop Thanos from being a threat? And past that, what about the next Thanos? What about all of the other problems that could arise from using the Infinity Stones when we have absolutely no understanding of the scope of their abilities or even how to begin properly using them?” Tony looks at them and he has to see the looks of annoyance and disregard for his words. “How do we know there isn’t a price to using them? A kind of balancing act? Can you get something from nothing? Are they able to actually do that, because that’s what your proposing.”  _

_ “If I could go back and stop Hitler from ruining lives Tony, I would, and so would you.” Steve says as patiently as he can and Tony lets out another frustrated sigh before he looks at Steve.  _

_ “I’m not sure I would.” He admits. “Not without knowing what it would do. Do you think that getting rid of Hitler would stop the wheel from turning? Do you honestly believe that one man had that much power? Who is to say that another Hitler wouldn’t just rise up? Whose to say that they wouldn’t be worse? Whose to say that they’d lose the war? It’s too many risks. So no Rogers, don’t speak for me because I don’t actually know that I’d do it, and it terrifies me how quickly you say you would.”  _

_ “Wow, so you’d let all those people die Stark?” Clint asks with a mocking look of wide-eyed wonder. “Bravo, I knew you were a self-centered dick but that’s a new low.”  _

_ “Go to fucking hell.” Tony snaps. “For all of you wanting to ignore chaos theory when I’m stating it but more than willing to attempt to use it in yours then I’ll give you another. If you could go back and stop the Titanic from sinking, would you?” Tony asks him and Steve nods once.  _

_ “Wouldn’t you?”  _

_ “No.” Tony says firmly. “It was a tragedy, but from that tragedy was born so many safety regulations and protocols that have undoubtedly protected so many lives and will go on to save lives if ever called upon. Don’t you get it? Sometimes bad things have to happen in order for us to learn from them, to see the blind spots and to stop them from ever happening again. If you just go back and hit the reset button without an explanation then no one learns the lesson and what happens when the next time something similar goes down? Will it be worse? Will it be the same? Could it have been prevented if the first one had been in effect? We have no way of knowing. Time is not a playground by which you just hit the ‘level reset’ button over and over again like a damn Nintendo game.”  _

Thankfully, Tony’s overruled in the end, and he has such a look of overdramatic resignation and exhaustion at the verdict that Steve almost wants to call him out on it, but if there’s one thing that Steve’s learned over the years about Tony it’s that the brunet has never been good at losing and not making a fuss about it. Dr. Strange seems willing to use the Time Stone to a point, listing out random information about the ‘natural order’ and things like that. Steve will admit that he doesn’t really listen to most of it, he’s a little more concerned with everything else. He’s concerned with how they have to pick a time, something to focus on in order to get the Time Stone to take whoever they choose back to where they want to go. Then from there, it’s a choice of what information they pass on and to whom. The natural answer is Fury, but Tony’s dead set against that and he manages to get the others to agree with him. He wants whoever it is who gets sent back to go straight to him and to tell him what’s coming so that he can start preparations as soon as possible. 

The demand is met with eyerolls from those in the group who know Tony best. Tony being told about anything without someone else being a kind of oversight to him is useless and will undoubtedly end them all on one of those ‘bad realities’ that Tony fears so. Inevitably, Steve’s the one chosen to go back since the serum might keep his body from tearing itself apart during the trip and it wouldn’t even matter if the entire group had unanimously decided to tell Tony because Steve would never follow through with that plan. Tony needs to be reigned in more and not given more power over the rest of the world than he already has. 

They do eventually settle on a plan to give the data to several people handpicked by various individuals and Tony makes a program that will allow itself to be used in the past on almost any older computer device. He doesn’t look thrilled about handing it over to Steve, even going so far as dropping it in his hand when Steve reaches for it like the sheer thought of touching Steve’s skin is like touching a hot coal. 

“I know you’re going to fuck it all up Rogers.” Tony tells him as they’re prepping to send him back. “I know you too well to think that you ever even pretended to listen to what everyone else wanted to do and didn’t just make up a plan of your own and smiled along with the rest of us.” He’s not wrong, but Steve isn’t going to give him the satisfaction of telling them that. “Think long and hard about the consequences of your actions. I know that thinking things through isn’t your strong suit but for once in your life pull your head out of your ass and make a better choice.” 

“I’m always about making the right choice, Tony.” Steve argues and Tony laughs. 

“You’re always about doing what you want to do, and then pretending that it was the right choice all along regardless of what happens.” He tells him. “There are things that have to happen, and there are reasons why so much effort went into this plan. Don’t deviate from it.” 

“I’ll do what has to be done.” 

“In other words, ‘fuck you Stark, I do what I want’.” Tony replies. “That’s great. That’s just perfect. You’re going to fuck over the world and you’re going to do it with a smile while patting yourself on the back. Why do I feel like somehow I’m still going to be the one holding the bag and taking the blame at the end of all of this?” 

“This is bigger than you Tony.” Steve points out and Tony gives him a look. 

“Yes, it is. It’s also bigger than _you_ Steve. Are you prepared to handle that?” He doesn’t answer Tony’s question and he goes through the motions of reciting everything that Strange and Banner have written out for him on his 1-2-3 Step Plan in the past and what to do. Strange eventually hands over the Time Stone to him and Steve hears Clint talking to Tony. 

“Why are you looking so put out there Stark? Stop looking like it’s the end of the world.” Clint tells him and Tony just shakes his head, his arms crossed and looking infinitely tired.

“It is what it is Barton.” Tony replies. “I just hope that whatever choices he makes now doesn’t end up making Thanos the better option.” Steve shakes his head and closes his fist around the stone. He knows what he needs to do and he knows what has to happen now. Tony might think that he’s got Steve figured out, but he doesn’t have a clue. Steve’s going to fix this, he’s going to give them all their best chance, and in the end Tony’s going to eat his words. Steve’s sure of it. 

“Hopefully, if everything turns out right, you’ll bounce back to a moment close to this in time.” Strange is telling him as they finish strapping him into the suit. “You probably won’t know the changes made, but let’s cross our fingers that the world you come back around to is different than this one.” 

“It will be.” 

“Then let’s hope it’s better.” Strange replies and Steve gives him as reassuring of a smile as he can. 

“It will be.” He promises and it’s the last oath that he makes before he sends a final glance in Tony’s direction and uses the stone.

+++

Dropping out of time in Howard Stark’s lab is not a fun experience by any means, and it’s something that Steve immediately regrets as his entire body feels like it’s trying to figure out if it needs to steady itself and be sick or just straight up die. Howard is a sight for sore eyes after so long dealing with the lesser option. He steadies Steve and helps Steve get his bearings before sitting down and listening to Steve lay out the entire problem coming their way. 

Steve hands over the program that Tony designed and Howard looks at it like Steve is handing him the holy grail. In a way, Steve figures that he’s handing him something better. This is all of Tony’s supposed ‘preparations’ given over to someone that Steve knows will use them properly. With Peggy at his side, the two of them will find Bucky and locate the Steve Rogers who has just recently gone into the ice and everything will be different. They’ll be ready for Thanos and any other problem that Steve knows used to keep Tony up at night. He almost wishes that he could say ‘you’re welcome’ to Tony, or at least the Tony that will never come to exist now with his anxieties and poor life choices. The new Tony will sleep safely in his tower and never know the gift that Steve gave him. 

“I’ll do everything I can Steve.” Howard is telling him when Steve feels the strain of existing in a time when he shouldn’t and he smiles at him. 

“I know you will, but you have to keep this secret. Remember, Hydra will infect SHIELD through Zola so you need to be on your guard.” 

“We will.” Howard assures him, gripping that little device like a lifeline. Steve goes to leave, but he pauses. “Is there something else?” 

“…yeah.” Steve says and a tiny part of him wonders if he’s crossing a line of ‘too much’. “There is one final thing that we need to talk about.” 

“What is it?” 

“Your son.” Steve says and Howards eyes are bright and curious. They’re not as hopeful at the end of Steve’s careful warnings of making sure to…contain the future heir of Stark Industries. The future needs Tony Stark, of that Steve can’t deny, but maybe a Tony Stark that isn’t…well as Tony as the one that Steve knew. 

“I’ll do my best.” Howard promises him and Steve nods. He knows that he will. He closes his hand around the stone again and lets it bounce him back to a comfortable time. 

He’s done it, he’s saved them all. 

+++

Something is very wrong. 

That much is obvious with just one glance at the almost spartan room that Steve wakes up in and at the glance at the world outside of his SHIELD apartment. There are buildings with advertisements that Steve doesn’t recognize and the technology in everyone’s hands is so beyond what it should be that Steve isn’t certain how to respond to it at first. There’s no way that Howard was foolish enough to use the future technology that Steve had given him too soon. He’d been specific on that point, the only point that he’d agreed on with Tony. The world wasn’t ready for the technology that Tony unlocked sooner than he’d unlocked it. Heck, even then the world wasn’t fully ready for it. But it’s here, in everything, all around him. From how cellphones look and act to automated systems and vehicles and everything else. There’s no way that Howard would have betrayed him like this…no…no this is somehow still Tony. Somehow the brunet must have gotten his hands on the information that Steve gave Howard and unleashed it before he should have. Steve doesn’t miss the Stark Logo on everything, which means that Tony used it to benefit himself and only himself. Why is Steve not surprised? 

With a frustrated sigh, Steve finds himself sitting down at a computer and taking a little while to be able to navigate the information on the web and he quickly looks up Tony Stark. 

He’s confused with what he gets when the images start to pull up. The first time around, Steve had never really searched Tony Stark in any capacity outside of the information packets that Nat or SHIELD gave him. Nat had warned him about the hellscape that looking for Tony on an unprotected search engine could lead to, including inappropriate videos that Tony never found the time to be properly ashamed of. However, the image of the man who pops up on his search page isn’t the Tony Stark that he knows. Or at least…it’s not the right _age_. Tony isn’t in his fifties, ever weary at the weight of being Iron Man. Instead, he looks like he’s in his late twenties at most. That’s…not right. It only takes a quick search to pull up why and the story that starts to unfold itself before his eyes confuses him. 

For some reason, Howard and Maria Stark didn’t have Tony until much later and with assistance due to their age. Howard was a notorious workaholic and rarely had the time for his socialite wife. Rumors had it that the only reason that Howard put forward to have Tony made was to create an heir for the legacy that he’d created. 

In the end, somehow…he got _two_ heirs. 

Gregory and Anthony Stark, the twin scions of the Stark family line. The last standing members of the Stark family who had taken over everything after Howards and Maria’s suspicious deaths. It was ruled potential accident, or possibly corporate sabotage but there were whispers about foul play from the hands of one of the Stark twins. There was no proof of course, and with Gregory overtaking Stark Industries and coming in to forcibly overtake SHIELD, there wasn’t really anyone with the proper power or manpower who could really attempt to look further into it all. 

Steve frowns as he looks at the information and he has no idea that it’s only the beginning of the rabbit hole that he’s living now. 

+++

Natasha Romanov isn’t a SHIELD agent, not anymore at least. Killed in action. Her file postulated that it was entirely possible that another member of the Black Widow Core had come to finish the job since the kill had looked personal. Steve can’t help but look into Natasha’s final missions and he frowns when he sees that she’d been taken off active duty for a short while, playing a nurse at the hospital that Tony Stark had been checked into during the time after Howard’s death. It’s obvious that her mission was something similar to the time Fury sent her to Stark during the Expo timeline and Steve frowns when he sees that she was pulled off of the mission by Gregory Stark who had taken over SHIELD during that time and had been put back on active duty. 

There are references to the Winter Soldier, or what used to be the Winter Soldier. Now he’s an agent of SHIELD working as Gregory’s bodyguard. There are some points in his files that speak of Howard’s attempts to recreate the files on BARF that Steve had stolen from Tony in the future that was no more, and Steve stares horrified when he reads that Howard’s attempts to fill in the blanks of Tony’s designs and utilizing the BARF system before it was ready left the Winter Soldier as nothing more than a well-behaved peon. That the BARF system had worked like a perfected Hydra chair over anything else and that any hope of restoring “Bucky Barnes” to the Winter Soldier’s psyche were well and truly over. 

There’s also references to Wakanda, and of the curtains being pulled back on the secretive country by Howard Stark almost a few decades back. The country had pulled into themselves at the sudden attacks from the world over demanding that they share their technology and medicine with the rest of the world, leading to Wakanda becoming completely isolationist and closing their borders and walls to everyone in the outside world. There was no T’Chaka on the UN and no mention of the Black Panther or T’Challa. 

Thinking of Wakanda though leads Steve to Sokovia and the Sokovia Accords. There’s no such thing, and no mention of Wanda or Pietro Maximoff either, but Steve stares horrified at the laws and regulations that were enacted by Howard and General Ross back in the day to prepare for powered and strange individuals. The SHRA is a nightmare that makes Steve sick to read it and makes him long for the days of the Sokovia Accords. He would have never figured that he’d enter a world where that could possibly be true, but here they were. 

Thor is dead, having been killed by Loki after being experimented on by SHIELD after his arrival. Steve never meant for his information about the Asgardians to be used that way but he’s staring at the information first hand and he feels sick. Not nearly as sick as learning about the treaty made with the King of Asgard **_Loki_**. The only thing that Steve can say might be a good thing is that there’s references of an attempted coup by Hela that was smashed by Loki. Steve wonders if Gregory or Tony shared information that Steve had given Howard with the Asgardian trickster god and Steve’s horrified to know that it doesn’t really matter either way. The stone has left him and there’s no undoing this world. 

Steve leans back and has to calm himself when he realizes that there’s no ‘Avengers’ in this world. Gregory Stark and General Ross never allowed it and there was no SHIELD to come in to bat for them once Gregory Stark took over and destroyed the World Council. Now, Steve Rogers is just a soldier with no authority or power. A ‘recruitment strategy’ more than a front-line warrior and Steve wants to smash something. 

The thing that terrifies him more though is that there’s no _Iron Man_. Tony Stark never got into the Stark weapons manufacturing business – Gregory did. Gregory took it to new heights, outshining even a brother in another reality who had once held the same role. There was no Afghanistan that molded Tony into the soldier he would need to be. Instead, Steve reads a horrifying account of unwanted and unwarranted body modification done on the youngest Stark by _Howard_ , shoving the ARC reactor in Tony’s chest and almost killing him with it, forever damaging the young genius and pushing him to the background where he hid in the shadow of Gregory Stark. 

Gregory Stark who is everything that Steve once feared Tony was. Gregory Stark who is so much _worse_. Gregory Stark who seems to hold the world in the palm of his hand and no one can take it from him. Gregory Stark who seems to laugh at it all while Tony does nothing to stop his brother. 

Later, when Thanos fully manifests from the darkness of space, he’s dealt with by the combined forces of Asgard and Earth. Steve wants to be thrilled, but in the aftermath he’s forced to come to the realization that Tony was right. Sometimes, there are things worse than what you’ve come to know. Thanos was just one threat. He’s quickly replaced with another, and another, and another and they’re all cut down leaving the real villain standing tall at the end of it all in his crisp white suits and cold blue eyes. 

Steve Rogers looks at Gregory Stark ruling the world and he understands for the first time how wrong they were about Tony. Tony was never the villain they made him out to be, and in the end because Steve didn’t listen to him, Steve helped usher in one that was so much _worse_. 

He should have listened to Tony, but it’s too late now. It’s too late for everyone. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, it has been rather hard trying to come back to the Marvel fandom when I’ve been off exploring other fandoms, living it up. It’s really difficult to deal with the Tony/Steve dynamics and Tony/Avengers Team dynamics after seeing better team dynamics and trying to get back into the mindset of just wanting to punch Marvel people. 
> 
> I've been off over in fandoms like Guardian, and it's near impossible to come back to the Steve/Tony dynamic once you've had Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. (Do yourself a favor and go watch it. It's awesome. [it's on youtube and Prime for anyone interested] )
> 
> Oh yeah, and as always: Please no comments of a critiquing or negative nature. Thanks.


End file.
